Power is the problem. Like any other space, including domestic ones, women and marginalized groups are under threat of the misuse of power, at the least, but in most cases, it is active abuse of power. Power comes disguised in many ways, including in camouflages that are almost military-grade and therefore too hard to read. You have asked me to talk in the context of the arts, but here is the first thing I would reiterate- power is a problem, it is persistent and it needs to be talked back to, questioned, be challenged and checked, in all conditions. Good power is mostly an oxymoron! This is not an arts space learning but a life hack.

Women have to be consciously alert to trappings of power, to talking back to power and calling out predators. It’s like swimming against the tide but it has to be done. Against the tide because patriarchy, privilege and power have woven a web to perpetuate their persistence. Women are kept back from the fruits of education, opportunity and empowerment. The unequal social system prefers obedient, pliable and docile daughters while letting “boys be boys”. Having said that, increased sharings with those of more fluid gender identities, inform that this is not a binarized problem, but can happen anywhere on the gender spectrum.

Even though abuse is a process, and unfolds slowly and in unexpected unpredictable manners, we need to do two things urgently. Firstly, we need to work to create awareness, on what constitutes abuse, molestation, and harassment, both, for those bearing its impact and those who could be likely perpetrators, making them aware of their options for recourse, and of the penalties involved. Then we need to teach the script of talking back to power. Regrettably, with centuries of bringing up daughters who will tolerate abuse, silently, with head downcast, many have lost their tongues. It is time to get it back- and get back a spine as well. Frequent efforts in this direction will make a change in the numbers of those who will stand against the issue. Secondly, there needs to be better institutional governance on the institutional and legal compliances. Governance is not related only to government; it is a tool of administration. Insist on better governance, in keeping with the spirit and letter of the law of the land.

Seek allies to help you assert this demand. You need to work on it every day, to not allow the toxicities in.  As one billion rises, the tipping point will come faster than you have thought. Already you must have begun sensing that never before have there been so many people on the right side of the cause. Stand together, create your protective nets bee the leadership brave spaces need. From here onwards, it really all depends on you- on how much of a safe space, and a brave space you build in your arts ecosystem!

About The Author – Dr. Arshiya Sethi

Scholar and “Artivist”, Founder and Managing Trustee Kri Foundation. Co-founder Unmute.help, Former Fulbright – Nehru Post Doctoral Fellow (2017-2018), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA